A method for delimiting and monitoring at least one working area for at least one autonomously operated vehicle includes transmitting, by a transmitter and receiver unit, an output signal through a signal loop. The transmitter and receiver unit is arranged outside the vehicle and is connected using signaling technology to the signal loop. The method further includes comparing the transmitted output signal with an input signal received from the signal loop, determining, by the transmitter and receiver unit, a malfunction of the signal loop in response to a deviation between the output signal and the input signal, and initiating a securing sequence for the autonomous driving operation of the at least one vehicle.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the output signal is an analog or a digital signal and the input signal is an analog or digital signal.
3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the output signal is transmitted by the transmitter and receiver unit continuously or at defined points in time.
4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the securing sequence comprises a command signal originating from the transmitter and receiver unit to the at least one autonomously operated vehicle or to an external receiving station.
5. The method according to claim 1, wherein each of the at least one autonomously operated vehicles is encoded in at least one of the working areas.
7. The system according to claim 6, wherein each signal loop comprises a metallic signal line.
8. The system according to claim 6, wherein each of the at least one autonomously operated vehicles is encoded in at least one of the working areas.
9. The system according to claim 6, wherein each of the at least one autonomously operated vehicles comprises a sensor unit configured to detect the output signal of the respective signal loop of the at least one signal loops.
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February 3, 2020
October 22, 2024
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